


the start of a beautiful friendship

by mieraspeller



Series: werewolf summer [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Pack Feels, The Alpha Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 09:21:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/649052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mieraspeller/pseuds/mieraspeller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three glimpses at the evolving dynamics of the pack. Mainly focused on Lydia and Derek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the start of a beautiful friendship

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. In the same 'verse as 'Battle Plans' and 'a state of being not commonly observed'.
> 
> If anyone notices any mistakes, or thinks any other tags should be added, please let me know!
> 
> the impetus for this fic was http://wildbeasties.tumblr.com/post/33824788514/did-someone-say-derek-allison-lydia-brot3

When Stiles bounces up and lets a horde of teenagers into his apartment Derek groans. Isaac walks in first, heading straight to the kitchen like he hasn’t been gone since the last time he tried to convince Derek to ask Scott to join his pack again. His stuff hasn’t moved from the bedroom, so Derek figured he would be back eventually. Jackson and Scott come in next and the last time he saw them, Scott had flat out told Derek he didn’t want him as his Alpha, and Jackson had made it clear that he didn’t want Derek for anything further than help in controlling himself. He glares at Stiles when Lydia follows Jackson in. The last time Derek saw her she was doing a really touching Beauty in the Beast reenactment with Jackson, yeah, but before that she blew wolfsbane in his face and used him to resurrect his dead uncle, so forgive him if he’s a little wary.

“The rest of the pack?” Derek can’t help but say sarcastically, but Stiles doesn’t even acknowledge it. 

“Yeah, dude. We aren’t going to let a bunch of Alphas come into our town with murderous agendas without doing something,” Stiles says, then nudges Scott none too gently. 

Scott looks pained but he says, “I guess you aren’t as bad as I thought. Sorry about the whole... making you bite Gerard thing.” 

Derek just shakes his head and pushes to his feet. The teens shuffle closer to each other and Derek has to stop himself from rolling his eyes. “Fine. All of you?”

Jackson crosses his arms, but nods sharply once. Scott shrugs and Stiles grins while Lydia looks around like the walls of Derek’s apartment have personally offended her. 

“Obviously the only way to get any information is by being involved,” she sniffs, and they stand around uncomfortably for a moment before Isaac makes a disgusted sound from the kitchen. 

“When’s the last time you went grocery shopping? All you have is condiments and sliced cheese in here!”

The boys skirt around Derek to join Isaac, and Lydia takes a step forward, narrowing her eyes at Derek. 

“I won’t be kept out of the loop,” she tells him, and Derek opens his mouth to argue, but Lydia shushes him. “No. I had your Uncle in my head for weeks after he attacked me, and maybe, if someone had told me what was going on, he wouldn’t be back. So you are going to tell me everything. And I will help you idiots get organized, because you obviously have no idea what you’re doing.” 

“Hey!” Stiles yells from the kitchen. “I make plans. It’s not my fault no one follows them.”

“You’re all going to get killed,” Derek sighs and drops back onto the couch. “If the Alpha Pack thinks you’re helping me, they’ll go after you.”

“I’m pretty sure I smelled one outside Lydia’s house yesterday. Plus, they already know if they have Erica and Boyd,” Jackson says, circling the couch to stand behind Lydia. Derek closes his eyes. It feels like defeat, but he can hear all their hearts beating steady, unafraid. 

“Fine,” he says, and doesn’t object when Stiles drags Scott over to the coffee table and starts laying out their ideas while Lydia unrolls a map and starts marking off places where the Alphas have been. 

“I’m ordering a pizza,” Isaac says, leaning over the back of the couch and holding out his hand expectantly. He’s trying to project confidence, but he looks like he’ll make a run for it if Derek says no, so he just sighs and digs his wallet out of his pocket. 

“Get a couple,” he says and tries not to flinch when Isaac’s face lights up. He settles back into the couch while they argue over toppings. It feels disturbingly normal.

 

++

 

Derek is sitting on his couch again, wondering why he seems to have taken over the responsibility for feeding seven teenagers, five of which are werewolves. His grocery bill for the last week alone is almost as much as his car payment.

Not to mention having to get used to coming out of the shower and finding a bunch of kids in his living room playing with weapons, or sitting at his newly assembled kitchen table. He’s still not sure how Stiles managed to get a key, and Isaac denies any involvement.

He tunes back in when Lydia clears her throat pointedly. “Everyone agreed?” Derek must look lost, so she says, sweetly, “Meeting at the Hale house tomorrow at eight.” 

Right, setting up traps. Derek nods.

“Awesome, planning accomplished. I’ll let Scott know,” Stiles says, rolling up the map. “Everyone have an alibi for tomorrow?”

There’s some grumbling, but everyone finally agrees, and Derek turns to walk into the kitchen while he waits for the rest of the teenagers to leave. At least they all clean up after themselves.

“Are you coming?” he hears Jackson ask, impatient, and Derek raises his eyebrows when he hears Lydia say, “I need to talk to Derek. Just wait outside for a couple minutes.”

“Lydia-” Isaac this time, sounding uncertain.

“Dude, we have a raid in ten minutes, let’s go!” Stiles yells, and Isaac looks conflicted until Lydia gently shoves him out the door.

“I’ll be fine, go.”

He hears them shuffling out, and the door closing before he turns around to face her. She’s looking around at the barren, water stained walls, nose wrinkling in distaste. It’s not new, but Derek has been ignoring her pointed looks and comments for the better part of week. He just crosses his arms, waiting.

Finally Lydia faces him, shoulders square. “Where’s Peter?” Her voice is impressively steady, but he can still smell the fear and anger from her at the mention of his Uncle’s name.

Which is understandable. Derek has just as much reason to hate Peter as Lydia -- as anyone in the pack. He’s pretty sure Lydia just wants Peter as far away from herself as possible, so he tells in the most reassuring tone he can manage, “Last I heard, he was seen in San Francisco in Martino Pack territory.”

“Good.” She pauses and then tilts her chin up. “Is he coming back?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want him to come back?” she asks, gaze shrewd on Derek’s face. He opens his mouth, and then lets out a deep breath.

“He... knows more than I do,” Derek says slowly. He’s been trying to remember what it’s like, being part of a real pack, one that’s worthy of his trust and his protection. Erica and Boyd are still wary of him, even after he helped rescue them and told them he understands why they tried to leave. Which he does. If he could run away from Beacon Hills, he would. Especially after what the Alpha Pack did to them. And Isaac still flinches half the time if Derek moves too suddenly. Allison stinks of wolfsbane and anger whenever Scott can convince her to come to meetings, but Derek knows they aren’t strong enough to turn down an alliance with the remaining Argents against the Alphas. 

The old Hale Pack was strong enough that they would never have had to accept help from hunters. Derek knows he’s not even half the Alpha his mother was, or even Laura. Maybe in a few years time this group will be as strong as Derek’s old pack, but a couple weeks of planning and movie nights aren’t enough. Derek just hopes they can all stay alive long enough to get to that point. 

Lydia is still waiting, so Derek adds, “He might be useful.”

“But we can’t trust him.” She says it bluntly, daring him to disagree. Derek shrugs and waits, because he knows Lydia has a point. She always does. “So, would it be worth it, to get possibly false information from a source we can’t trust? Who might physically harm us, work with the Alpha Pack against us, or betray in innumerable other ways?”

Lydia sweeps out the door without waiting for him to respond. As soon as the door shuts behind her Derek slumps against the counter. He wishes she wasn’t right. As much as Derek wishes he could trust him, Peter isn’t on anyone’s side but his own at this point. 

 

++

 

“I’m not going to apologize,” Lydia says the next day, as she and Derek set up a third trip wire in the woods south of his house. 

Derek raises his eyebrow and Lydia mirrors the gesture. “For what?” he asks, resigned. If he doesn’t, they’ll never get done. And he can smell his sweet and sour pork mingled with the rest of their orders coming up the road in Stiles’ Jeep. 

“For the whole, wolfsbane powder in the face, and helping raise your Uncle from the dead, thing.” Lydia says it matter of factly, which Derek appreciates. He’d rather she didn’t bring it up at all, but at least she’s not emitting guilt like most high schoolers emit desire, or saying it like a challenge, like Jackson had after he came back two weeks into being a werewolf, demanding that Derek teach him. 

“I didn’t expect you to,” he says, and enjoys a few moments of silence, interspersed with the occasional shout from where Jackson and Scott are working over to the east, hiding caches of arrows and pouches full of mountain ash and wolfsbane. There isn’t any noise from Isaac or Erica, and he’s just hoping they actually did something productive like finish their homework where they are supposed to be keeping watch, instead of getting into another fight. He checks the tension in the wire, nearly done, and Lydia tosses the wire cutters over. 

“Good. Because I’m not sorry. I was having hallucinations of your dead Uncle, since he tried to turn me into a werewolf, then used me as a horcrux so he could resurrect himself.” Her mouth shuts with a snap, and she busies herself with the supplies. 

“You read Harry Potter?” Derek can’t help but ask, and Lydia gives him an arch look. 

“You read Harry Potter?” 

Derek sighs. “I don’t expect you to apologize, Lydia. It wasn’t your fault. And I know that he can’t be trusted.” 

“Wonderful.” Lydia straightens up and unrolls the maps, and Derek stands over her as she marks off where they are. “So, you know that it’s not your fault that Kate Argent manipulated you and used you against your family.” Derek feels his throat tighten before he can ask how the hell she knows about that, and Lydia continues on like she didn’t just blindside him. “We need one more in the southwest quadrant and then we’re done. We’ll switch quadrants with Allison, Stiles, and Boyd tomorrow and they can start on the wolfsbane nets over here.” 

Lydia gives him a look that - on someone else - he would have described as sympathetic, and starts talking about timelines. By the time they get the last tripwire set up, Derek lets himself relax a little.

“Ravenclaw, by the way,” she tells him on the way back to the house. Derek can’t stop a small smile, confident that it’s dark enough she won’t see.

“Laura always said I was a Gryffindor,” Derek tells her, not in the least apologetic.

“Of course you are. I’m surrounded by Gryffindors.” 

“I’m pretty sure that Stiles is a Hufflepuff, if that makes you feel better,” Derek says and Lydia laughs. 

“Spend a lot of time thinking about him?” she asks slyly, and Derek feels his face heat up as he quickly turns the conversation back to their defenses. 

 

++

 

“I’m sick of pizza,” Erica says, a week into what they’ve even gotten Derek to call their war preparations, “and that is not a thing I ever thought I would say. Can we please have something else for lunch today?”

“Oh, what about that sandwich place downtown?” Allison says, turning hopeful eyes on Derek. They’ve been getting along better since she helped them get Erica and Boyd back, but she still doesn’t talk to him much. At least not voluntarily. Derek’s already been lectured by Scott and Lydia about his ‘attitude’ towards her, so he takes it for the olive branch it probably is. 

“Sure.”

“They don’t deliver,” Stiles informs them, already looking them up on his phone. “We can call in an order and pick it up.” 

“Not me,” Isaac calls, followed closely by Scott and Jackson.

“I don’t even have a car,” Boyd says, without looking up from his book. Derek thinks it’s a textbook, but he doesn’t remember Beacon Hills High offering Quantum Mechanics. 

“We’ll go,” Lydia says hopping up off the porch and pulling Allison up after her. She rattles off her order to Stiles and loops her arm around Derek’s, looking at them expectantly. 

“Turkey on rye, no onions,” he tells Stiles and Allison sighs and says, “Avocado chicken wrap,” and they let Lydia drag them to Derek’s car.

“It only takes ten minutes to get there,” Derek tries, and Lydia just raises her eyebrows at him until he unlocks the car. As soon as he does Lydia pushes the seat forward and settles into the backseat, pulling it back down with an ominous click that makes Derek wince. Allison grimaces, almost too quick to see, before she fixes her face in a tight smile and gets in the passenger seat. 

“Maybe we shouldn’t leave them alone,” Allison tries, but Lydia places a deceptively light hand on her shoulder. 

“They’ll be fine. Besides, Boyd’s there.” 

Derek opens the driver side door slowly, reluctant. “It won’t even be ready for like half an hour.” 

“Good,” Lydia says with a terrifying smile as Derek slides into the driver’s seat, and then, “We can talk.” 

Allison looks resigned, and Lydia’s face in the rear view mirror is smug. Derek looks away before he can see his own expression. He really doesn’t want to know. But he’s pretty sure he’s going to end up doing whatever Lydia’s got planned for them in the end. He glances over at Allison and thinks he has an idea of what that is. And he know that if they don’t cooperate, Lydia’ll just recruit the rest of the pack to annoy him into compliance. At least Scott will be happy. God. 

Derek grits his teeth and starts the car.


End file.
